


i think i want to be her best friend, yeah

by thesaddestboner



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Bullying, Childhood Friends, Female Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-16 10:05:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11250909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesaddestboner/pseuds/thesaddestboner
Summary: It’s easy to imagine herself, Zara, and Auston standing on some stage with all the lights on the three of them.





	i think i want to be her best friend, yeah

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helveticaneue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helveticaneue/gifts).



> [**helveticaneue**](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/helveticaneue/profile), I read over your "Dear Author" letter and decided to try and mash up your love of punk band AUs with rule 63 Dylan/Zach... As you can see, I had all sorts of lofty ideas for this that didn't quite work out. So, let's consider this a prequel to a proper rule 63 punk band AU featuring Zach, Dylan, and Auston. (Also an incredibly pre-pre-pre-Dylan/Zach+Auston thing.) 
> 
> Title from "Rebel Girl," by Bikini Kill.
> 
> You can find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/thesaddestboner) and [tumblr](http://saddestboner.tumblr.com).

Dylan’s crying in the storage shed out behind the gym, hot tears streaming down her face and soaking into the collar of her school uniform, when her world’s thrown off its axis for the very first time. 

Earlier that morning, Kelly Clifford and Dinah Paulson had pushed her down in gym class, then Nick Walden had stolen her paper bag lunch while she wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t a big deal—it _shouldn’t_ have ben a big deal—but something about the missing paper bag tipped a switch inside. One minute Dylan was calm and composed, staring at the empty spot on her desk where the brown bag lunch had been, and the next she was running out of homeroom with tears pricking her eyes and laughter nipping at her heels. 

Now Dylan’s staring blearily at the person-shaped shadow standing in the open door to the storage shed. Dylan gropes in the darkness, closes both hands around something long and metallic. It feels like an aluminum baseball bat and Dylan envisions herself walloping Nick Walden in his stupid, smug, ferrety face.

A light snaps on and Dylan finds herself face-to-face with Zara Werenski. 

Zara’s eyes dart to the bat in Dylan’s hands. “Mrs. Koppel send me to find you,” she says, sighing and stepping to the side, motioning at Dylan to come out. “Here.” Zara reaches into a pocket of her uniform and pulls out a wad of Kleenex.

Dylan frowns and drops the bat, letting it clatter to the floor. “I’m fine,” she mutters, snatching the Kleenex from Zara. 

Zara squints at her. “Yeah, you definitely look fine. If you don’t come out I’m gonna get detention. So, come on.” Zara holds out her hand to Dylan, who stares at it like she expect to find a joke buzzer hidden against her palm.

Dylan grasps onto Zara’s hand and lets the other girl help pull her to her feet. Once she’s back on solid ground, Dylan brushes off the front of her skirt and fixes the lapel of her uniform jacket. She flips her braid over her shoulder and tucks a few stray, flyaway strands of her brown hair back in place.

“What happened anyway?” Zara asks, as she catches Dylan by the elbow and starts to lead her toward their classroom.

“Crappy day,” Dylan mutters, letting Zara pull her along.

Zara says nothing to that. She just slips her hand away from Dylan’s elbow and pulls open the door to the classroom. It's empty, save an electronic keyboard on rollers and a drum set. 

“What is this?” Dylan asks as Zara motions for Dylan to follow her in.

Zara closes the door behind them and holds a finger to her lips to shush Dylan. She walks over to a row of lights witches by the door and snaps them on. 

“This,” Zara says, turning to Dylan with a flourish, her plaid skirt flaring, “is where I go when everything’s crappy and I just need to hide from the world for a while.”

“The music room?” Dylan walks over to the keyboard and taps at some of the white plastic keys.

“Yeah. Do you play an instrument?” Zara sits behind the drum set and pokes at a set of cymbals. 

“If you don’t count the recorder, no,” Dylan says, with a laugh. “You?”

“I’m trying to teach myself the guitar,” Zara says.

“How do you fit in the music with the hockey too?” Dylan asks.

Zara shrugs. “Very carefully? I think my mom and dad want me to pick one or the other and focus on it, but…”

“You don’t want to, you wanna do both,” Dylan says.

Zara nods. “Yeah. I can’t imagine not doing both.”

Dylan and Zara both play for their school team. Zara is a defenseman. Dylan plays center and sometimes on the wings. She’s probably as good as her brother, Colin, maybe even better. But Colin’s a boy so he gets to dream of playing for Red Berenson and, eventually, the National Hockey League. 

Dylan likes hockey. She doesn’t like not being allowed to have the same dreams Colin has.

“I’m gonna play for U of M,” Zara announces out of the blue.

Dylan looks over at her, shoulders scrunching. “You’re thirteen. How can you know for sure?”

“I just know,” Zara says, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“I just wanna…” Dylan sighs, trailing off. Survive middle school? Survive _high school_? 

“You’ll find something you really love to do,” Zara says, as if she’s peeked into Dylan’s future and already seen how her life unfolds. “Maybe you’ll decide you like playing music… We should start a band!”

Dylan laughs. “Seriously? The two of us?”

“Yeah. It’d be fun,” Zara says, jumping up, cymbals crashing in a cacophony of noise. She stills them with her hand and runs over to Dylan, looping their elbows together. “I could teach you how to play the guitar. And we could bring in some of the other girls on the hockey team.”

Dylan’s known Zara since they were little kids, but they’ve never really been close. They’ve always played on the same hockey and soccer teams, even though Dylan’s older. When she was younger it kind of annoyed her that Zara was younger and still good enough to be on all of Dylan’s teams. Now she doesn’t mind. Zara’s probably her best friend. 

“What kind of music do you listen to?” Dylan asks. 

Dylan starts thinking maybe she should pull her arm away from Zara’s, but she likes being close to her. Being this close to Zara almost makes her feel brave, like she could face down Kelly, Dinah, and Nick and make them wish they hadn’t messed with her. 

“I like all kinds of music,” Zara says, tugging Dylan over to a wooden bench that lines the wall. “I like the stuff that's on the radio. And the old stuff my dad plays on his record player. Sometimes I sing along. My mom says I’m good at it.”

“I can’t play anything,” Dylan says, looking down at her hands resentfully, like they’ve betrayed her. 

“Have you ever tried?” Zara asks.

“Not really. My mom signed me up for lessons but I got bored,” Dylan says. 

“I can teach you the guitar,” Zara says, putting an arm around Dylan’s shoulders. “We should get Auston to join too.”

Dylan frowns. Auston Matthews is a whole year behind them. “He’s just a little kid.”

“Auston’s my age,” Zara says, laughing. “It’s not like he’s a baby.”

Dylan’s not sure she likes sharing this thing—this idea—with anybody besides Zara, but she nods anyway. If she says no, maybe Zara will just go start playing with Auston instead. “I guess it wouldn’t be too bad.”

Zara grins. “It’ll be fun! Just me and you and Auston.”

Dylan smiles a little, unable to help herself. “Auston might not wanna do it.”

“He will,” Zara promises, squeezing Dylan’s shoulders. “We’re gonna be famous.”

“Yeah,” Dylan agrees, allowing herself, for a moment, to believe in Zara’s vision of the future. It’s easy to imagine herself, Zara, and Auston standing on some stage with all the lights on the three of them. 

The school bell starts ringing and Dylan nearly jumps out of her skin. Zara gets up and fixes her navy uniform jacket, then nods to Dylan.

“Let’s go find Auston and tell him,” she says, offering Dylan her hand.

Dylan grabs hold and lets Zara pull her out of the music room to find Auston.

**Author's Note:**

> The author of this piece intends no insult, slander, or copyright infringement, and is not profiting from this work. This story is a complete work of fiction and does not necessarily reflect on the nature of the individuals featured. This is for entertainment purposes only. If you found this story while Googling your name or the names of your friends, hit the back button now.


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